ONLY 1 month until Valentine’s Day ladies!!!

Although Valentine’s Day is a hugely popular celebration, not many of us actually know where it actually originates from...

Every February 14^th, across the UK and Europe, chocolates, flowers, and romantic and luxury gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. Many of us do all this without questioning who this mysterious saint was and why we celebrate this holiday. Unfortunately the history of Valentine’s Day and its patron saint is shrouded in vagueness. All we really know for sure is that February has long been a month of romance.

St. Valentine’s Day, as we know it today, contains relics of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. Nevertheless, the big question is who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men considered his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the unfairness of the ruling, disobeyed Claudius II and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that tragically he be put to death.

Other tails suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first ‘valentine’ greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl. Some even believe that this girl many be the jailors daughter, talk about forbidden love!! It is believe the daughter visited her beloved Valentine often during his sentence. It is alleged that he actually wrote her a letter just before his death, which he signed ‘From your Valentine,’ an expression that is still used often today.

Although the truth behind the Valentine Day legend is rather murky, the stories certainly emphasize sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic elements. It’s therefore no surprise that by the middle ages, Valentine himself was one of the most popular saints in England and France.

Meanwhile some believe that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to counteract and ‘Christianize’ celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out, consequently the creation of a good old ‘spring clean’ happens about then too. Lupercalia February 14^th was considered a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of cultivation, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

With a view to this, Pope Gelasius declared February 14^th St. Valentine’s Day around 498 A.D. Lupercalia was considered a Roman ‘lottery’ system for romantic pairing and was deemed un-Christian and outlawed.

Another notion commonly shared by many throughout the years is that this celebration was in fact the beginning of birds’ mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February, formally known as Valentine’s Day should be a day for romance.

Interestingly, the oldest reserved valentine was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture. The greeting, which was written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England. In Britain, Valentine’s Day became a popular celebrated holiday around the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a society that was full of emotional, sexual and romantic repression.